THE DEATH-GRAPPLE.
The triumph of the Republican party at the polls was the signal for the
work of dissolution to begin. Webster's terrific vision of "a land rent
with civil feuds" became reality in the short space of six weeks after
Lincoln's election, by the secession of South Carolina from the Union.
Quickly other Southern States followed, until a United States South was
organized, the chief stone in the corner of the new political edifice
being Negro slavery. It was not six weeks after the inauguration of
Abraham Lincoln, when the roar of cannon in Charleston Harbor announced
to the startled country that war between the States had begun. The first
call of the new President for troops to put down the rebellion and to
save the Union, and the patriotic uprising which it evoked made it plain
that the struggle thus opened was to be nothing less than a
death-grapple between the two sections.
Before the attack on Fort Sumter, Garrison was opposed to coercing the
rebel States back into the Union. He admitted the Constitutional power
of the National Government to employ force in maintaining the integrity
of the Republic. "The Federal Government must not pretend to be in
actual operation, embracing thirty-four States," the editor of the
_Liberator_ commented, "and then allow the seceding States to trample
upon its flag, steal its property, and defy its authority with impunity;
for it would then be (as it is at this moment) a mockery and a
laughing-stock. Nevertheless to think of whipping the South (for she
will be a unit on the question of slavery) into subjection, and
extorting allegiance from millions of people at the cannon's mouth, is
utterly chimerical. True, it is in the power of the North to deluge her
soil with blood, and inflict upon her the most terrible sufferings; but
not to conquer her spirit, or change her determination."
He, therefore, proposed that "the people of the North should recognize
the fact that THE UNION IS DISSOLVED, and act accordingly. They should
see, in the madness of the South, the hand of God, liberating them from
'a covenant with death' and an 'agreement with hell,' made in a time of
terrible peril, and without a conception of its inevitable consequences,
and which has corrupted their morals, poisoned their religion, petrified
their humanity as towards the millions in bondage, tarnished their
character, harassed their peace, burdened them with taxation, shackled
their prosperity, and brought them into abject vassalage."
It is not to be wondered at that Garrison, under the circumstances, was
for speeding the South rather than obstructing her way out of the Union.
For hardly ever had the anti-slavery cause seen greater peril than that
which hung over it during the months which elapsed between Lincoln's
election and the attack on Sumter, owing to the paralyzing apprehensions
to which the free States fell a prey in view of the then impending
disruption of their glorious Union. Indeed no sacrifice of anti-slavery
accomplishments, policy, and purpose of those States were esteemed too
important or sacred to make, if thereby the dissolution of the Union
might be averted. Many, Republicans as well as Democrats, were for
repealing the Personal Liberty Laws, and for the admission of New Mexico
as a State, with or without slavery, for the enforcement of the Fugitive
State Law, for suppressing the right of free speech and the freedom of
the press on the subject of slavery, and for surrendering the Northern
position in opposition to the extension of slavery to national
Territories, in order to placate the South and keep it in the Union.
Nothing could have possibly been more disastrous to the anti-slavery
movement in America than a Union saved on the terms proposed by such
Republican leaders as William H. Seward, Charles Francis Adams, Thomas
Corwin, and Andrew G. Curtin. The Union, under the circumstances, was
sure death to the slave, in disunion lay his great life-giving hope.
Therefore his tried and sagacious friend was for sacrificing the Union
to win for him freedom.
As the friends of the Union were disposed to haggle at no price to
preserve it, so was Garrison disposed to barter the Union itself in
exchange for the abolition of slavery. "Now, then, let there be a
CONVENTION OF THE FREE STATES," he suggested, "called to organize an
independent government on free and just principles; and let them say to
the slave States: Though you are without excuse for your treasonable
conduct, depart in peace! Though you have laid piratical hands on
property not your own, we surrender it all in the spirit of magnanimity!
And if nothing but the possession of the Capitol will appease you, take
even that without a struggle! Let the line be drawn between us where
free institutions end and slave institutions begin!"
But the thunder of the rebel guns in Charleston Harbor wrought in the
reformer a complete revolution in this regard. In the tremendous popular
uprising which followed that insult to the national flag he perceived
that the old order with its compromises and dispositions to agree to
anything, to do anything for the sake of preserving the Union had passed
away forever. When it was suggested as an objection to his change of
base that the "Administration is endeavoring to uphold the Union, the
Constitution, and the Laws, even as from the formation of the
Government," he was not for a moment deceived by its apparent force, but
replied sagely that "this is a verbal and technical view of the case."
"Facts are more potential than words," he remarked with philosophic
composure, "and events greater than parchment arrangements. The truth
is, the old Union is _nan est invenius_, and its restoration, with its
pro-slavery compromises, well-nigh impossible. The conflict is really
between the civilization of freedom and the barbarism of
slavery--between the principles of democracy and the doctrines of
absolutism--between the free North and the man-imbruting South;
therefore, to this extent hopeful for the cause of impartial liberty."
With the instinct of wise leadership, he adjusted himself and his little
band of Abolitionists, as far as he was able, to the exigencies of the
revolution. In his madness there was always remarkable method. When the
nation was apathetic, dead on the subject of slavery, he used every
power which he possessed or could invent to galvanize it into life. But
with the prodigious excitement which swept over the free States at the
outbreak of the war, Garrison saw that the crisis demanded different
treatment. Abolitionists and their moral machinery he felt should be
withdrawn, for a season at least, from their conspicuous place before
the public gaze, lest it happen that they should divert the current of
public opinion from the South to themselves, and thus injure the cause
of the slave. He accordingly deemed it highly expedient that the usual
anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery Society, held in New York,
ought, under the circumstances, to be postponed, coming as it would but
a few weeks after the attack on Sumter, and in the midst of the
tremendous loyal uprising against the rebels. This he did, adding, by
way of caution, this timely counsel: "Let nothing be done at this solemn
crisis needlessly to check or divert the mighty current of popular
feeling which is now sweeping southward with the strength and
impetuosity of a thousand Niagaras, in direct conflict with that haughty
and perfidious slave-power which has so long ruled the republic with a
rod of iron, for its own base and satanic purposes."
The singular tact and sagacity of the pioneer in this emergency may be
again seen in a letter to Oliver Johnson, who was at the time editing
the _Anti-Slavery Standard_. Says the pioneer: "Now that civil war has
begun, and a whirlwind of violence and excitement is to sweep through
the country, every day increasing in interest until its bloodiest
culmination, it is for the Abolitionists to 'stand still and see the
salvation of God,' rather than to attempt to add anything to the general
commotion. It is no time for minute criticism of Lincoln, Republicanism,
or even the other parties, now that they are fusing, for a death-grapple
with the Southern slave oligarchy; for they are instruments in the hands
of God to carry forward and help achieve the great object of
emancipation for which we have so long been striving.... We need great
circumspection and consummate wisdom in regard to what we may say and do
under these unparalleled circumstances. We are rather, for the time
being, to note the events transpiring than seek to control them. There
must be no needless turning of popular violence upon ourselves by any
false step of our own."
The circumspection, the tact, and sagacity which marked his conduct at
the beginning of the rebellion characterized it to the close of the war,
albeit at no time doing or saying aught to compromise his anti-slavery
principle of total and immediate emancipation. On the contrary, he
urged, early and late, upon Congress and the President the exercise of
the war power to put an end for ever to slavery. Radical Abolitionists
like Stephen S. Foster were for denying to the Administration
anti-slavery support and countenance, and for continuing to heap upon
the Government their denunciations until it placed itself "openly and
unequivocally on the side of freedom," by issuing the edict of
emancipation. Against this zeal without discretion Garrison warmly
protested. "I cannot say that I do not sympathize with the Government,"
said he, "as against Jefferson Davis and his piratical associates. There
is not a drop of blood in my veins, both as an Abolitionist and a peace
man, that does not flow with the Northern tide of sentiment; for I see,
in this grand uprising of the manhood of the North, which has been so
long groveling in the dust, a growing appreciation of the value of
liberty and free institutions, and a willingness to make any sacrifice
in their defence against the barbaric and tyrannical power which avows
its purpose, if it can, to crush them entirely out of existence. When
the Government shall succeed (if it shall succeed) in conquering a
peace, in subjugating the South, and shall undertake to carry out the
Constitution as of old, with all its pro-slavery compromises, then will
be my time to criticise, reprove, and condemn; then will be the time for
me to open all the guns that I can bring to bear upon it. But blessed be
God that 'covenant with death' has been annulled, and that 'agreement
with hell' no longer stands. I joyfully accept the fact, and leave all
verbal criticism until a more suitable opportunity."
But it must be confessed that at times during the struggle, Lincoln's
timidity and apparent indifference as to the fate of slavery, in his
anxiety to save the Union, weakened Garrison's confidence in him, and
excited his keenest apprehensions "at the possibility of the war
terminating without the utter extinction of slavery, by a new and more
atrocious compromise on the part of the North than any that has yet been
made." The pioneer therefore adjudged it prudent to get his battery into
position and to visit upon the President for particular acts, such as
the revocation of anti-slavery orders by sundry of his generals in the
field, and upon particular members of his Cabinet who were understood to
be responsible for the shuffling, hesitating action of the Government in
its relation to slavery, an effective fire of criticism and rebuke.
Nevertheless Mr. Garrison maintained toward the Government a uniform
tone of sympathy and moderation. "I hold," said he, in reply to
strictures of Mr. Phillips upon the President at the annual meeting of
the Massachusetts Society in 1862; "I hold that it is not wise for us to
be too microscopic in endeavoring to find disagreeable and annoying
things, still less to assume that everything is waxing worse and worse,
and that there is little or no hope." He himself was full of hope which
no shortcomings of the Government was able to quench. He was besides
beginning to understand the perplexities which beset the administration,
to appreciate the problem which confronted the great statesman who was
at the head of the nation. He was getting a clear insight into the
workings of Lincoln's mind, and into the causes which gave to his
political pilotage an air of timidity and indecision.
"Supposing Mr. Lincoln could answer to-night," continued the pioneer in
reply to his less patient and hopeful coadjutors, "and we should say to
him: 'Sir, with the power in your hands, slavery being the cause of the
rebellion beyond all controversy, why don't you put the trump of jubilee
to your lips, and proclaim universal freedom?'--possibly he might
answer: 'Gentlemen, I understand this matter quite as well as you do. I
do not know that I differ in opinion from you; but will you insure me
the support of a united North if I do as you bid me? Are all parties and
all sects at the North so convinced and so united on this point that
they will stand by the Government? If so, give me the evidence of it,
and I will strike the blow. But, gentlemen, looking over the entire
North, and seeing in all your towns and cities papers representing a
considerable, if not a formidable portion of the people, menacing and
bullying the Government in case it dared to liberate the slaves, even as
a matter of self-preservation, I do not feel that the hour has yet come
that will render it safe for the Government to take that step.' I am
willing to believe that something of this kind weighs in the mind of the
President and the Cabinet, and that there is some ground for hesitancy
as a mere matter of political expediency." This admirable and
discriminating support of the President finds another capital
illustration in weighty words of his in answer to animadversions of
Prof. Francis W. Newman, of England, directed against Mr. Lincoln. Says
Garrison: "In no instance, however, have I censured him (Lincoln) for
not acting upon the highest abstract principles of justice and humanity,
and disregarding his Constitutional obligations. His freedom to follow
his convictions of duty as an individual is one thing--as the President
of the United States, it is limited by the functions of his office, for
the people do not elect a President to play the part of reformer or
philanthropist, nor to enforce upon the nation his own peculiar ethical
or humanitary ideas without regard to his oath or their will."
Great indeed was the joy of the pioneer when President Lincoln on
January 1, 1863, issued his Emancipation Proclamation. The same
sagacious and statesmanlike handling of men and things distinguished his
conduct after the edict of freedom was made as before. When the question
of Reconstruction was broached in an administrative initiative in
Louisiana, the President gave great offence to the more radical members
of his party, and to many Abolitionists by his proposal to readmit
Louisiana to Statehood in the Union with no provision for the extension
of the suffrage to the negro. This exhibition of the habitual caution
and conservatism of Mr. Lincoln brought upon him a storm of criticism
and remonstrances, but not from Garrison. There was that in him which
appreciated and approved the evident disposition of the President to
make haste slowly in departing from the American principle of local
self-government even in the interest of liberty. Then, too, he had his
misgivings in relation to the virtue of the fiat method of transforming
chattels into citizens. "Chattels personal may be instantly translated
from the auction-block into freemen," he remarked in defence of the
administrative policy in the reconstruction of Louisiana, "but when were
they ever taken at the same time to the ballot-box, and invested with
all political rights and immunities? According to the laws of
development and progress it is not practicable.... Besides, I doubt
whether he has the Constitutional right to decide this matter. Ever
since the Government was organized, the right of suffrage has been
determined by each State in the Union for itself, so that there is no
uniformity in regard to it.
" ... In honestly seeking to preserve the Union, it is not for President
Lincoln to seek, by a special edict applied to a particular State or
locality, to do violence to a universal rule, accepted and acted upon
from the beginning till now by the States in their individual
sovereignty.... Nor, if the freed blacks were admitted to the polls by
Presidential fiat do I see any permanent advantage likely to be secured
by it; for, submitted to as a necessity at the outset, as soon as the
State was organized and left to manage its own affairs, the white
population with their superior intelligence, wealth, and power, would
unquestionably alter the franchise in accordance with their prejudices,
and exclude those thus summarily brought to the polls. Coercion would
gain nothing." A very remarkable prophecy, which has since been exactly
fulfilled in the Southern States. Garrison, however, in the subsequent
struggle between Congress and Mr. Lincoln's successor over this selfsame
point in its wider relation to all of the Southern States, took sides
against Andrew Johnson and in favor of the Congressional fiat method of
transforming chattels personal into citizens. The elimination of Abraham
Lincoln from, and the introduction of Andrew Johnson upon the National
stage at this juncture, did undoubtedly effect such a change of
circumstances, as to make the Congressional fiat method a political
necessity. It was distinctly the less of two evils which at the moment
was thrust upon the choice of the Northern people.
The same breadth and liberality of view, which marked his treatment of
Mr. Lincoln upon the subject of emancipation and of that of
reconstruction, marked his treatment also of other questions which the
suppression of the rebellion presented to his consideration. Although a
radical peace man, how just was his attitude toward the men and the
measures of the War for the Union. Nothing that he did evinced on his
part greater tact or toleration than his admirable behavior in this
respect. To his eldest son, George Thompson, who was no adherent of the
doctrine of non-resistance, and who was commissioned by Governor Andrew,
a second lieutenant in the Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Regiment, the
pioneer wrote expressing his regret that the young lieutenant had not
been able "to adopt those principles of peace which are so sacred and
divine to my soul, yet you will bear me witness that I have not laid a
straw in your way to prevent your acting up to your own highest
convictions of duty." Such was precisely his attitude toward the North
who, he believed, in waging war against the South for the maintenance of
the Union, was acting up to her own highest convictions of duty. And not
a straw would he place across her path, under those circumstances,
though every step bore witness to one of the most gigantic and
destructive wars in history.
Garrison did not have to wait for posthumous appreciation from his
countrymen. His steady and discriminating support of the Government, and
his ardent sympathy with the arms of the North won him appreciation in
his lifetime. Indeed, there came to him, if not popularity, something
closely akin to it during the war. His visit to the capital in June,
1864, well illustrates the marvelous changes which had taken place in
the Union touching himself and his cause. On his way to Washington the
pioneer stopped over at Baltimore, which he had not revisited for
thirty-four years, and where the Republican Convention, which
renominated Lincoln was in session. He watched the proceedings from the
gallery, and witnessed with indescribable emotions the enthusiastic
demonstrations of joy with which the whole body of delegates greeted the
radical anti-slavery resolution of the Convention. To the reformer it
was "a full indorsement of all the Abolition fanaticism and
incendiarism" with which he had been branded for years. The jail where
he had been held a prisoner for seven weeks, like the evil which he had
denounced, was gone, and a new one stood in its place, which knew not
Garrison. In the court-house where he was tried and sentenced he was
received by a United States judge as an illustrious visitor. Judge Bond
hunted up the old indictment against the junior editor of the _Genius of
Universal Emancipation_, where it had lain for a generation, during
which that guiltless prisoner had started a movement which had shaken
the nation by its mighty power, and slavery out of it. "Eight or nine of
the original jurymen who gave the verdict against Mr. Garrison are still
living," wrote Theodore Tilton, at the time, to the _Independent_, "and
Judge Bond jocosely threatened to summon them all into Court, that Mr.
Garrison might forgive them in public."
At Washington the pioneer's reception seemed to him like a dream. And no
wonder. He was heartily received by President Lincoln and Secretary
Stanton. He was accorded the most marked attentions on the floor of both
branches of Congress. On every side there rose up witnesses to the
vastness of the revolution which had taken place, and to the fact that
the great Abolitionist was no longer esteemed an enemy of the Republic
but one of its illustrious citizens. This was evinced in a signal and
memorable manner a little later when the National Government extended to
him an invitation to visit Fort Sumter as its guest on the occasion of
the re-raising over it of the Stars and Stripes. He went, and so also
went George Thompson, his lifelong friend and coadjutor, who was the
recipient of a similar invitation from the Secretary of War.
This visit of Mr. Garrison, taken in all its dramatic features, is more
like a chapter of fiction, with its strange and improbable incidents and
situations, than a story of real life. The pioneer entered Georgia and
trod the streets of Savannah, whose legislature thirty-three years
before had set a price upon his head. In Charleston he witnessed the
vast ruin which the war had wrought, realized how tremendous had been
the death-struggle between Freedom and Slavery, and saw everywhere he
turned that slavery was beaten, was dead in its proud, rebellious
center. Thousands upon thousands of the people whose wrongs he had made
his own, whose woes he had carried in his soul for thirty-five years,
greeted him, their deliverer, in all stages of joy and thanksgiving.
They poured out at his feet their overflowing love and gratitude. They
covered him with flowers, bunches of jessamines, and honeysuckles and
roses in the streets of Charleston, hard by the grave where Calhoun lay
buried. "'Only listen to that in Charleston streets!' exclaimed
Garrison, on hearing the band of one of the black regiments playing the
air of 'Old John Brown', and we both broke into tears," relates Rev.
Theodore L. Cuyler, who stood by the side of the pioneer that April
morning under the spire of St. Michael's church.
"The Government has its hold upon the throat of the monster, slavery,"
Mr. Garrison assured an audience of nearly four thousand freedmen, "and
is strangling the life out of it." It was even so. Richmond had fallen,
and Lee had surrendered. The early and total collapse of the rebellion
was impending. The Government was, indeed, strangling the life out of it
and out of slavery, its cause and mainspring. The monster had, however,
a crowning horror to add to a long list of horrors before fetching its
last gasp. The assassination of President Lincoln was the dying blow of
slavery, aimed through him at the Union which he had maintained.
Appalling as was the deed, it was vain, for the Union was saved, and
liberty forever secured to the new-born nation. As Garrison remarked at
the tomb of Calhoun, on the morning that Lincoln died, "Down into a
deeper grave than this slavery has gone, and for it there is no
resurrection."